Kent Bush: Kansas governor’s office needs thicker skin

Tuesday

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2011 at 12:50 AM

But then there are the people who should not have access to social media. I have friends who fall in and out of love with each changing phase of the moon and post each sordid moment for all to see. Other friends are far too caustic for a public venue. Others still reveal pure ignorance. Ten years ago, I would never have known how many “friends” I had in need of counseling. The world was a much more private place. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback might just fall into one of the latter categories of social media users.

Kent Bush

I have said it for years. Social media isn’t for everyone.

Some people simply can’t handle it. I like to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to keep up with my family and friends. With a brother in Oklahoma City, Okla., a sister near Little Rock, Ark., me near Wichita, Kan., and our parents still in Chickasha, Okla., Facebook is a great way to share little pieces of our lives with each other from afar.

I also like to comment on friends’ posts in an attempt to soothe my alter ego, who happens to be a comedian. I make myself laugh – even if my humor eludes some readers.

But then there are the people who should not have access to social media. I have friends who fall in and out of love with each changing phase of the moon and post each sordid moment for all to see. Other friends are far too caustic for a public venue. Others still reveal pure ignorance. Ten years ago, I would never have known how many “friends” I had in need of counseling. The world was a much more private place.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback might just fall into one of the latter categories of social media users.

A teenage girl at Shawnee Mission East posted a childish and derogatory message about Brownback’s comments to her class’s field trip on her Twitter account. Her 60 followers had to have been quite amused.

But thanks to a governor’s office employee’s electronic search, the post was discovered and reported to the school.

Some have been horrified that Brownback’s office combs through social media platforms in search of posts about their boss. Some pointed out that he could find no money in the state’s budget for education, but had employees reading Twitter posts.

The Internet site Gawker reacted with stern criticism, as did the Huffington Post. Even "Star Trek: The Next Generation’s" Wil Wheaton tweeted his displeasure.

But this is nothing new.

About 20 years ago as a political science graduate, I got a job working for my congressman as an intern. I worked three days a week for about nine months as an assistant to the constituent services employees in the office of Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.).

I answered the phone and did my best to help people get what they needed from our office. When the phones weren’t ringing, I was reading all of the newspapers in our district.

I cut out every article that mentioned McCurdy or issues he was working on. I affixed those articles to pages to be faxed and mailed to the Washington, D.C., office. My work kept McCurdy informed about what his district was thinking about him and his work.

That is what most elected officials use the information for.

McCurdy never called a newspaper and asked for a reporter to be reprimanded because of a column or letter to the editor despite the fact that I was there when McCurdy was voting in favor of the controversial Brady Bill gun control act. His more rural constituents were not pleased. I spoke to hundreds of them. But Brownback decided to be a bully.

He didn’t necessarily bully the teenager who tweeted her displeasure with Brownback. He bullied her school. No school wants to fuel the governor’s fire when it comes to further cuts in education. So the administrators reacted to being contacted by Brownback’s office. She was called into her principal’s office and it was “suggested” that she write a letter of apology. She has not apologized.

Once again, people clamored that the governor had violated the First Amendment.

He didn’t.

She wasn’t jailed or even kicked out of school. She was called into the office. It was ridiculous. But it wasn’t a violation of the First Amendment.

Brownback’s office needs to do a better job of picking its battles. They picked a fight with a teenaged girl and lost the public relations battle. In the process they gave Kansas a black eye on the national stage.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and sometimes too much information is, as well.

The governor’s office needs to develop thicker skin and a better public relations plan.